The American Revolution
Some
scholars have argued that economics and class conflicts caused the American
Revolution. However, most experts now endorse the traditional theory
that the Revolution was a political conflict, caused by irreconcilable
differences about how the American colonies should be governed. By 1776,
the British were committed to the view that Parliament must exercise
unchallenged authority in all parts of the empire, including the power
to tax Americans without their consent. Americans believed that they
were entitled to certain fundamental rights, the "rights of Englishmen,"
which put certain activities beyond the reach of any government. Inability
to compromise on these ideas led in 1775 to an appeal to arms.
Because of the strong bands of law, loyalty, faith and blood uniting
the two peoples, many Americans were surprised that a war against the
British had occurred. Most Americans believed themselves to be as English
as their kin in the mother country, differing from them only in living
in another part of the empire. Even on the eve of declaring independence
most Americans would have been happy with what is today called "dominion
status," which would have meant owing allegiance to the British monarch
but otherwise enjoying political autonomy.
Since it began in 1775, the fighting was bloody.
The Revolution, concluded by a preliminary peace treaty in the fall of 1782, was, after the Civil War, the costliest conflict in American history in terms of the proportion of the population killed in service. It was three times more lethal than World War II.
The brutality of the war convinced
leading American statesmen such as George Mason (1725-1792) that enduring
hostility would exist between Britain and America. Mason wrote in the
autumn of 1778: "Enormities and cruelties have been committed here,
which not only disgrace the British Name, but dishonour the human kind.
We can never trust a People who have thus used us, Human Nature revolts
at the idea."
Although hostility remained
after the war, many Americans continued following British ways as eagerly
as ever. In the 1790s one of the two leading American political parties
sought a "rapprochement" with Britain -- a powerful testimony to the
strength of what Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), in the Declaration of
Independence, called the "ties of our common kindred."
The Stamp Act
The Stamp Act, which taxed Americans for stamps imprinted on
a wide variety of legal and official documents, was the
first measure passed by the British parliament to arouse
widespread antagonism in the thirteen colonies. Taking
effect on November 1, 1765, it was considered by both
British and American leaders as a precedent-setting measure
because of the important point it established, the right
of parliament to lay an internal tax upon the colonies.
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The Stamp Act.
London, 1765,
p. 2. London: printed by Mark Baskett, 1766.
Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress (33)
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Proof Sheet of 1d Stamp Duties for Newspapers,
1765. Board of Inland Revenues Stamping Department Archive, Philatelic Collection, The British Library (34)
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The Stamps
This is a proof sheet of one-penny stamps, submitted for approval to the Commissioners of Stamps by an engraver on May 10, 1765. Under the Stamp Act, one-penny stamps were to be used on newspapers, pamphlets and all other papers"being larger than half a sheet and not exceeding one whole sheet."
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The Repeal of the Stamp Act
The Stamp Act generated intense, widespread
opposition in America. Colonists convened an intercolonial
Stamp Act Congress in New York in the fall of 1765 and
called for a boycott on British imports. Bowing to the
pressure, Parliament repealed the Stamp Act in 1766. In
this cartoon, a funeral procession to the tomb of the
Stamp Act includes its principal proponent, Treasury Secretary
George Grenville, carrying a child's coffin, marked "Miss
Ame-Stamp born 1765 died 1766."
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"The Repeal or Funeral of Miss
Ame- Stamp," [1766].
Engraving.
Prints and Photographs
Division, Library of Congress (35)
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Paul Revere.
"The Bloody Massacre Perpetrated
in King Street, Boston on March 5, 1770."
Boston: 1770.
Engraving.
Prints and Photographs
Division, Library of Congress (38)
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The "Boston Massacre"
On March 5, 1770, a mob, marching on
the Customs House, was fired upon by a detachment of British
troops who were being verbally and physically abused by
the Americans. British soldiers were acquitted in a trial
in which they were defended by John Adams (1735-1826).
The engraving by Paul Revere (1735-1818) of the massacre
was derived from the work of future Loyalist, Henry Pelham
(1749-1806). A masterpiece of anti-British propaganda,
it inflamed American sentiments.
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The Boston Tea Party
The Tea Act, passed by the House of Commons on April 27, 1773,
was regarded in America as a strategy to induce the colonists,
by lowering the price of tea, to consume more of it and
therefore acknowledge the principle of British taxation.
On December 16, 1773, a group of Bostonians, disguised
as Mohawk Indians, boarded the tea ships docked in Boston
Harbor and dumped all 342 chests into the water, goading
Britain into harsh retaliatory legislation, known as the
Intolerable Acts.
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W.D. Cooper. "Boston Tea Party."
The History of North America. London: E. Newberry,
1789.
Engraving. Plate opposite p. 58.
Rare Book
and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
(40)
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[Philip Dawe].
"A Society of Patriotic Ladies." London: R. Sayer
and J. Bennett, 1775.
Mezzotint.
Prints and Photographs
Division, Library of Congress (41)
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The Patriotic Ladies of Edenton
One way the Americans responded to the Intolerable Acts was
to boycott British products. This satire, appearing in
London in March 1775, was inspired by a newspaper report
that a society of ladies in Edenton, North Carolina, had
agreed to refrain from drinking tea.
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Continental Congress Asserts
Loyalty to the King
As one of its final acts, on October
25, 1774, the First Continental Congress adopted a respectful
petition to George III (1738-1820). Written by John Dickinson
(1732-1808), the petition asserted that had it not been
for Parliamentary oppression, Americans would be "recommending
ourselves by every testimony of devotion to your Majesty
and of veneration to the state from which we derive our
origin." It is signed by the members of the First Continental
Congress.
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Petition of First Continental
Congress to the King,
October 26, 1774.
Page 2
Hand-written manuscript.
Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress (44)
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"Bloody Butchery of the British
Troops: Salem
1775."
Reprint: Salem, Massachusetts: 1850.
Broadside.
Printed Ephemera Collection,
Rare Book
and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
(45)
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The War Begins
British troops, sent to confiscate American arms and supplies,
were resisted by Massachusetts militiamen at Lexington
and Concord on April 19, 1775. This broadside printed
at Salem, Massachusetts, a few days later dramatically
displays the coffins of the forty Americans killed. The
British were reported to have suffered 65 dead, 180 wounded,
and 27 missing.
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Battle of Bunker Hill
On June 17, 1775, the British attacked
an earthen redoubt erected by American troops led by Colonel
William Prescott (1726-1795), on Breed's Hill, just below
Bunker Hill, on the Charlestown Heights commanding Boston.
The British drove the Americans out after three frontal
assaults at the cost of 1500 casualties. This picture
of the battle was drawn shortly after the conflict by
Lieutenant Thomas Page, British General William Howe's
aide-de-camp.
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Thomas Page. Sketch of the Battle
of Bunker Hill. June 17, 1775. Colored map.
Geography
and Map Division, Library of Congress (46)
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"View of the Attack on Bunker's
Hill with the Burning of Charlestown." Engraving after
Millar.
In Edward Bernard,
The New, Comprehensive and Complete History of England.
London: Alex. Hogg, [1783].
Early Printed Collections, The British Library (47)
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The Burning of Charlestown
Charlestown, Massachusetts, was burned
to the ground during the Battle of Bunker Hill. Harassed
by musket fire from the town, the British forces were
ordered to set it afire, which they did by a heavy bombardment.
Built of wood, the town's buildings were consumed by flames
almost immediately.
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Washington Appointed Commander in Chief
On June 19, 1775, two days after the
Battle of Bunker Hill, the Continental Congress selected
George Washington (1732-1799) to lead the Continental
Army. His commission, seen here, named him"Commander in
Chief of the army of the United Colonies and of all the
forces raised or to be raised by them and of all others
who shall voluntarily offer their services and join the
said army."
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Washington's Commission as Commander
in Chief of the American Army,
June 19, 1775.
Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress (48)
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Thomas Jefferson. Original Rough
Draft of the Declaration of Independence, June 1776.
Holograph with minor emendations by John Adams and Benjamin
Franklin.
Manuscript Division,
Library of Congress (50)
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Rough Draft of the Declaration of Independence
Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) composed
this draft of the Declaration of Independence. It was
corrected (seen in the margins) by Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
and John Adams, and was approved by the Committee on June
28 and submitted to Congress. Congress approved it on
July 4, 1776, but not before making substantial changes,
including the deletion of Jefferson's famous denunciation
of slavery.
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The British take New York
Early American optimism that a hastily assembled army of soldiers
fresh from the plow and the shop could prevail against
the powerful professional forces of Great Britain was
dashed in the campaign around New York City in the summer
of 1776. Seen here is the British Army entering New York
in mid-September 1776 after it was abandoned by Washington's
forces.
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Francis Xavier Habermann.
"L'Entré triumphale de
troupes royales a Nouvelle Yorck."
Paris: J. Chereau, [177?].
Hand-colored engraving.
Prints and Photographs
Division, Library of Congress (51)
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B.F. Leizalt. "Combat memorable
entre le Pearson et Paul Jones. Augsburg: 1779 1780."
Engraving after a painting by Richard Paton.
Prints and Photographs
Division, Library of Congress (54)
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A Victory at Sea
This depiction is of John Paul Jones'
famous victory over the Serapis, September 23, 1779, off
Flamborough Head in the North Sea. In command of the smaller
Bon Homme Richard, Jones (1747-1792) succeeded by lashing
his ship to his adversary's and raking it with musket
fire. The battle has been called "one of the most desperate
and sanguinary sea fights in naval history."
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The Surrender at Yorktown
This etching is a fanciful French representation of the surrender
at Yorktown, Virginia, depicted in the upper center as
a walled medieval town. The French army, dressed in blue,
is in the foreground and the American army, in red, is
in the background between which the British army is seen
leaving the field. The French fleet, whose command of
the seas was decisive, is depicted as being anchored in
the York River.
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"Reddition de l'Armée
Angloises Commandée par Mylord Comte de Cornwallis
aux Armées Combinées des âtats unis de l'Amérique
et de France. . . . "
Paris: Mondhare, 1781.
Hand-colored etching.
Geography and
Map Division, Library of Congress (55)
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James Gillray. "The American
Rattle Snake." London: W. Humphrey, April 1782.
Enlarged version
Etching.
Prints and Photographs
Division, Library of Congress (57)
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The American Rattlesnake
Published when peace negotiations had
begun, this etching suggests the futility of further British
efforts to suppress forcibly the Americans. The American
rattlesnake boasts: "Two British Armies I have thus Burgoyn'd,
And room for more I've got behind." A sign is posted over
a vacant third coil:"An Apartment to Lett for Military
Gentlemen."
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Treaty Map, 1782
Called by a distinguished scholar, "the
most famous map in the history of American diplomacy,"
this map has been variously called "Mitchell's Map," "the
Red-lined Map," and "King George's Map." It was the map
used by the British and American peace negotiators in
Paris in the fall of 1782 to delineate the boundaries
of the original territory that became the United States.
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John Mitchell.
A Map of the British Colonies
in North America with the Roads, Distances, Limits and
Extent of the Settlements.
London: Jefferys & Fadden, 1775, with hand-written additions,
1782.
Enlarged version
Map Collections, The British Library (58)
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America: A Prophecy.
London: William Blake, 1793, frontispiece. Drawing, with
watercolor and ink.
Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection,
Rare Book
and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
(61)
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The Loss of America
The loss of America was troubling to
many Britons, among them poet and artist William Blake
(1757-1827). Blake related the American Revolution to
the French Revolution, during which this drawing was made,
and believed the two events might portend some sort of
cosmic upheaval. Here, England's angel, Albion, mourns
the loss of America which, in Blakes's view, has made
a giant breach in the fabric of Britain's well being.
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